Bombay High Court Stays ₹57.29-Crore GST Demand Against Mad Over Donuts Operator
The Bombay High Court has stayed a Rs 57.29 crore goods and services tax demand against Himesh Foods Pvt. Ltd., which operates the Mad Over Donuts chain. The court noted that companies facing the same tax issue have already received interim protection.
A division bench of Justices G.S. Kulkarni and Aarti Sathe referred to a December 2025 order passed in petitions filed by Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd. and other companies.
In those cases, the court had admitted the petitions and stayed the show cause notices issued to them. The bench said the same approach was warranted here.
Himesh Foods had challenged a show cause notice dated August 3, 2024, issued under Section 74 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017, read with Section 74 of the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017.
While the petition was pending, the tax department passed an adjudication order on January 4, 2025. The company was then allowed to amend its petition to also challenge that order.
The company said the authorities wrongly treated its supplies as item-wise sales and classified them at 18% instead of 5% for the period in question. It relied on the High Court's earlier orders granting interim relief in similar classification disputes. The revenue did not dispute that those matters are still pending before the court.
Granting relief, the bench said, “In this view of the matter, we are inclined to pass similar orders, and accordingly, there shall be interim relief in the nature of a stay of the impugned order till the final disposal of the Petition.”
The matter has been listed for final hearing on February 26, 2026, along with connected cases.
For Petitioner: Advocates Abhishek Rastogi, Pooja Rastogi, Meenal Songire and Aarya More.
For Respondents: Advocates Jitendra Mishra, Sangeeta Yadav, Ashutosh Mishra and Rupesh Dubey, for Amar Mishra, Additional Government Pleader; and Advocates Satyaprakash Sharma and Suman Kumar Das for respondent no. 6.